“Well, I think it can be managed.  I have a friend who is a physician, so I will get him to compound some poison for me, and will send it to you.  You must look out for a moment when your husband is not on his guard, and get him to take it.”

Having agreed upon this, Takasegawa went away, and, having employed a physician to make up the poison, sent it to O Hiyaku in a letter, suggesting that the poison should be mixed up with a sort of macaroni, of which Jiuyemon was very fond.  Having read the letter, she put it carefully away in a drawer of her cupboard, and waited until Jiuyemon should express a wish to eat some macaroni.

One day, towards the time of the New Year, when O Hiyaku had gone out to a party with a few of her friends, it happened that Jiuyemon, being alone in the house, was in want of some little thing, and, failing to find it anywhere, at last bethought himself to look for it in O Hiyaku’s cupboard; and as he was searching amongst the odds and ends which it contained, he came upon the fatal letter.  When he read the scheme for putting poison in his macaroni, he was taken aback, and said to himself, “When I caught those two beasts in their wickedness I spared them, because their blood would have defiled my sword; and now they are not even grateful for my mercy.  Their crime is beyond all power of language to express, and I will kill them together.”

So he put back the letter in its place, and waited for his wife to come home.  So soon as she made her appearance he said—­

“You have come home early, O Hiyaku.  I feel very dull and lonely this evening; let us have a little wine.”

And as he spoke without any semblance of anger, it never entered O Hiyaku’s mind that he had seen the letter; so she went about her household duties with a quiet mind.

The following evening, as Jiuyemon was sitting in his shop casting up his accounts, with his counting-board[44] in his hand, Takasegawa passed by, and Jiuyemon called out to him, saying:—­

“Well met, Takasegawa!  I was just thinking of drinking a cup of wine to-night; but I have no one to keep me company, and it is dull work drinking alone.  Pray come in, and drink a bout with me.”

[Footnote 44:  The abacus, or counting-board, is the means of calculation in use throughout the Continent from St. Petersburg to Peking, in Corea, Japan, and the Liukiu Islands.]

“Thank you, sir, I shall have much pleasure,” replied the wrestler, who little expected what the other was aiming at; and so he went in, and they began to drink and feast.

“It’s very cold to-night,” said Jiuyemon, after a while; “suppose we warm up a little macaroni, and eat it nice and hot.  Perhaps, however, you do not like it?”

“Indeed, I am very fond of it, on the contrary.”

“That is well.  O Hiyaku, please go and buy a little for us.”

“Directly,” replied his wife, who hurried off to buy the paste, delighted at the opportunity for carrying out her murderous design upon her husband.  As soon she had prepared it, she poured it into bowls and set it before the two men; but into her husband’s bowl only she put poison.  Jiuyemon, who well knew what she had done, did not eat the mess at once, but remained talking about this, that, and the other; and the wrestler, out of politeness, was obliged to wait also.  All of a sudden, Jiuyemon cried out—­